Rose uses magic to clean the place up, making sure no human sees a bunch of bodies in the room. Luckily, no flesh was peeled off; she was here just in time… more like Daniel was here just in time. And even though she thinks vampires are disgusting, she is grateful for him being here.
She doesn't believe he was just here to help her; he looks like the kind of person who lives for the thrill. With his annoying smile and stupid eyes.
Rose is definitely keeping this to herself no way she is telling anyone that a vampire helped her kill a bunch of wendigos. She was supposed to do this on her own; she didn't need help, but still, she was given a mark, so that means she passed her test.
After she cleans up the place, she sighs and moves closer to the curtain, but she turns around to look at the space where she stood when that moroi kissed her on the cheek. She grimaces and then walks away, throwing the curtain away from her face.
She's leaving the club; she wishes she could stay and celebrate the passing of her test, but she doesn't dance, and she would rather die than dance around people. She's about to walk out of the building when someone stops her by grabbing her hand. She stops and she looks behind her to see it's the man who bought her the drink.
"Hey, where are you going?" he asks her. He seems super drunk. And he looks like those white men who pursue black women because they're good in bed.
"I'm really tired," Rose says, turning to leave, but the man keeps his grip on her.
Rose is getting impatient, and luckily, no one sees when her eyes flash a gold colour before going back to normal.
"Please stay, I got you a drink."
"I didn't ask you to do that."
"But I really like you." he pulls her to him to kiss her, but she throws the man to the ground, which causes people around them to gasp. She pins him to the ground with her leg on his chest.
He was drunk, but that forces him to be sober.
"When a woman says no, she means no!" Rose snaps at him, and then she walks away.
"YOU TELL EM GIRL!" She hears someone say, and she smiles as she walks out of the club.
She crosses the street, and her cousin is still there leaning next to his car with his arms folded. She wishes he weren't here, but she knows it was her aunt who sent him to do this, look after her. If only she had a car. But she's not allowed to drive until she's eighteen.
Which is weird to her because how can she be killing monsters at the age of seventeen, but isn't allowed to drink or drive till she's eighteen.
"You did it!" Derek says.
"I did it," says Rose with a smile on her face.
"Whoa, let me see, let me see," he says like a little boy who is about to unwrap his Christmas present.
Rose takes off her leather jacket and shows him the tattoo.
"Whoa, this is so cool. A pentagram and the head of the wolf," he says in shock, but then he relaxes his face. "Oh, I forgot you're both."
"You see," she puts her jacket back on. "I'm not a mistake."
"No, you're not and fuck anyone who thinks that," Derek says, and Rose puts up a smile on her face. That's her cousin, always there for her.
"Alright, let's go home. I knew you were going to pass," he pats her on the back and heads over to his car, a Black 1994 Jeep Wrangler and opens the door. Rose wants to tell him about what happened. But no, she's decided to keep it to herself. No way is she saying anything.
She fought the wendigos without help; she won fair and square. She opens the door to the car, and as soon as she gets in, she beats her cousin to the radio, and then rock music starts playing.
Decode By Paramore.
"Oh, come on, why do you like this kind of music. You should listen to hip hop."
"I do love hip hop, but this is better."
"You didn't just say a genre made by black people is lesser than rock."
"Uh, you do know black people invented rock music, right?"
Derek gives her a look with his eyebrows creased. "They did?"
Rose rolls her eyes and shakes her head with her smile still intact. "Drive this car and let's go home."
"Okay, whatever you say, mage," he drives, and they head to their home, which is very close to the woods; every werewolf's house is close to the woods. But the Lockwoods' home is not like every werewolf's home. It's a modern, luxurious glass-and-wood mansion, and Uncle Chris is the alpha of the pack.
The Lockwoods have lived in Cupid's Hollow since it was founded and have never left.
Until Rose's dad.
As soon as they pull up, Rose gets down and then heads toward the building with her cousin by her side. Derek playfully shoves her to the side, and Rose does the same thing.
They both giggle.
Rose opens the door, and as soon as she gets in, she jumps, her claws almost pop out. Her family yells a surprise! There are balloons everywhere and a cake in her Aunt Megan's hand. Her birthday was yesterday, but she knows this party is to congratulate her on passing her test. They had so much fate in her that they even got a congratulations cake.
"My dear, you did it!" Uncle Chris hugs her, and she hugs him back, then hugs her aunt.
"Congratulations, sweetie." Aunt Megan says.
"Gee, thanks, guys," she says, forcing a smile because she really doesn't like parties. But she is grateful nonetheless.
"Congratulations, dear." Mrs Grey, Devon's boogie mom, says to her with a nice smile. She's covered in a silver dress and pearls around her neck, the dress complements her caramel skin, and she stands so elegantly with a glass of red wine in her right hand.
"Thanks, Mrs Grey."
Her husband isn't here. But her son is.
"There she is, congratulations, Rosie," Devon says.
"Call me that again and I'll slit your throat."
"Rosie," he jokes, and Rose acts like she's about to punch him by throwing her hands in the air. He flinches, but he stands his ground, then he laughs.
Devon Grey has been her best friend since they were ten. They became friends when they stacked a bunch of witch and werewolf kids in this house because the adults went to fight some monster that was powerful monster.
Their friendship began when they were playing cards with each other, and Rose won; instead of being bitter about it, Devon became her friend instead. She and Violet went from being a duo to a trio.
They've been friends ever since. And what Rose doesn't know is that he's been in love with her ever since.
Devon is an attractive guy, his skin a mix of golden and brown, full lips, sharp cheekbones, dark brown eyes and long almond hair that's currently up in a bun. Rose knows he's attractive, but she also knows she wasn't brought into this world to fall in love or date boys. She's come to help people.
"You can also fall in love and still help people", her best friend, Violet, would always tell her. She knows Violet's head is in the right place, but she'll be falling in love over her dead body.
"Let us see the mark." Uncle Chris says, and then she sighs, and then takes off her jacket to show them. They all gather around her, and they look at the mark in awe.
"Wow, that's…"
"Amazing," Devon says, cutting his mom off from saying something stupid. One thing about Mrs Leslie Grey is that she's always going to say her mind and give her honest, unwarranted opinions.
"My baby's now a mage." Aunt Megan says with tears in her eyes.
"Aunt Meg, please don't cry." Says Rose.
"Yeah, mom, don't cry or else I'll cry." Says Derek in a whiny voice.
"Okay, okay, I won't," she wipes the little tear that appears in her eyes with her fingers. "I'm just really proud of you."
Her uncle put his hand on her shoulder. "We all are," he says. It's nice to know her aunt and uncle are proud of her. She wonders if her parents will be proud of her; she's not sure. They didn't want her to be a part of this life.
"Okay, let me go cut the cake." Aunt Meg says enthusiastically as she heads toward the kitchen.
"So." Devon walks over to her. "How was the kill? Tell me about it."
Devon's first kill happened a month ago. He was tasked to kill a bunch of strigoi vampires, and of course, it's easy because werewolves hate vampires with a burning passion. It was pretty easy and fast for him.
Rose sees that Devon really wants to know what went down. But she can't tell him that she had help from a vampire; no way is she going to do that.
She looks away from him.
"Uh, I'm going to go help Aunt Meg in the kitchen. I'll tell you later," she pats him on the shoulder, then walks away from him. She knows she can easily say that she killed those wendigos on her own, but she's going to be lying to Devon; she doesn't lie to Devon or her family ever.
This is going to be hard to do.
After cutting the cake and sharing it with everyone, she sits on the chair watching Derek and Devon play-fight fight each other. She shakes her head at this childish behaviour.
She's about to put a piece of cake in her mouth when she notices her parents and Mrs Grey whispering amongst themselves behind her. She stays still to listen to their conversation.
"The Ivanovs are here in Cupid's Hollow. Why?" Her uncle asks.
Rose has heard that name before, and she remembers.
Daniel Ivanov.
They're talking about his family.
She knew he was new in town because she had never seen him before.
"No one knows, but they are back. I never thought that family would show themselves here, given your family's history."
Family history?
What is she talking about? The Lockwoods knew the Ivanovs?
"Look, we can't drive them away from town as long as we avoid each other; everything will be okay." Aunt Meg says.
"Let's just hope history doesn't repeat itself." Mrs Grey says.
"It won't. We'll tell Rose and Derek to stay away from that family." Her uncle says.
Now there's only one thing on Rose's mind. What on earth happened between the two families?